Kodiak Island ~ Fossil Beach and more

Kodiak Island is known for its brown bears and remoteness. I have gotten there a few times in the last few years, and didn’t do a blog last year (as we were taking off for another trip once I landed at home.)

Kodiak is the 2nd largest island in the United States (earlier this year I visited Admiralty Island which is the 7th largest in the US), and #80 in the world. The island is 100 miles long from tip to tip and ranges from 10-60 miles wide. The city of Kodiak is the largest on the island, though there are 7 communities/villages as part of Kodiak and part of why I was there was to do training with their advisory boards. These villages are Akhiok, Karluk, Larsen Bay, Old Harbor, Ouzinkie, Port Lions and then Afognak Island (a smaller island near Kodiak). Some of these villages have been in existence much longer than Alaska was part of the United States and remain subsistence villages as much as possible.

Kodiak reminds me a lot of Southeast, (SE) AK where I live, as it has mountains, and yet has a lot of forest on most of the island. As in SE the only way in/out is on a boat or plane. The great part of Kodiak is there is quite an extensive road system and I was lucky enough to have my good friend and colleague, Norm take me on a tour of the island.

We headed out early and drove to Fossil Beach. Along the way we saw Bison, eagles, surfers and a lot of other amazing sites. Though the road is only about 46 miles it take about 1.5 hours to get there. The roads are curvy, and slow going, but again worth it. And in the morning there was a lot of fog, buy by the time we headed back towards town it had lifted a bit.

Kodiak offers so much to see and do, there is not a ‘best time of year” to visit, you simply should just add it to your MUST VISIT list. Alaska Air and ERA Airlines fly there daily and it is a place to be seen!

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5 responses to “Kodiak Island ~ Fossil Beach and more”

Thanks for the introduction to Kodiak. From the sounds of it, it must be similar in size to Puerto Rico. Are the bison native to the island or were they brought to there? If they were brought there, do you know when and why?

In the mid 1970s the was a Kodiak Beef Farm. However the cattle was constantly being killed by the bear. The owner tried buffalo and the bear did not get them. He now has llama and other creatures on the farm. It is quite far out the road. Near the Launch area.